A friendly game of Maurice

One of the great things about tabletop is that it may be even played during these dire times. And after a digital game of canvas eagles - maybe some pictures on that later - I met up with a friend to enjoy the great spring and a game of Maurice on the terrace. I highly recommend to listening to Benda's Concerto for Flute in E minor while reading this report to get you into the right mood.

About the game

Maurice is a game designed by Sam Mustafa which is based on an action-cards system. I was rather reluctant when I had my first game some time ago, but started to enjoy it more and more ever since. The basic mechanic is a deck of cards which each give a specialty and a range in base-widths. These may be used by the player to activate a force of his for a certain action (charge, march, rally) or to modify the outcome of a certain action or fight. For each action the player regains a certain amount of cards (charge 0, march 1, rally/shoot artillery 2 or if you pass the turn, 3). So gaining and holding the initiative is as important as good card management. And dices are of importance, as well.

We played a hypotetical clash of Luis XV's French and a Force of Frederick the Great. Besides buying units using a quite straight forwards points system one can by so called national advantages which give the whole army an improvement in some field. As we designed the army we chose complementing doctrines: The Prussians would have a supreme commander and high firepower, allowing them to re-roll failed wounding dices after they hit. The French on the other side would rely on guard units and supreme charges.

The army-lists

The Prussians

spend 12 points for "Lethal Volleys" and 12 points on the "Great Captain"
And then take 4 units of regular cavalry (each 6 points), 6 units of regular infantry (each 6 points) and 4 units of conscript infantry  (each 4 points) adding up for a total of 100 points.

The French

spend 9 Points for "Maison du Roi" giving them access to the guard infantry and 12 points for "à la bayonette!" which allows to re-roll combat dices if the player wants to.
They furthermore take 2 units of guard infantry (together 14 points), 8 units of regular infantry (each 6 points), 1 artillery piece (1 point) and 4 units of conscript cavalry (each 4 points) with them, adding up to 100 points as well.


The dices decided that we would meet in a forested environment, and that the french would have to drive the Prussians off the objective. Thus my opponent would have more cards and the first turn - and try to drive me off.

Before setting up the actual forces the notability which leads some of the units is drawn from a card deck as well. They can give advantages or disadvantages as well and some events might affect the opponent and some yourself. Turned out that my commander was suffering from the gout and thus be back to a rather normal one. A fate I may relate to.

After deploying forces the table looked as follows, with the objective in the village within my half:

The village is the attackers objective

Prussias right flank is guarded by their superior cavalry

Due to the terrain I would have to try to fan out my force from the gaps between the terrain. Not the best start when under pressure from a two line deep block of Frenchmen eager to charge:

The Prussians have taken the village and advance on their left

But then, suddenly, Confusion among the Prussian lines breaks out:

Damn, such battles can be bloody confusing!

This meant for one of my units to be moved by my opponent deliberately into the line of fire. During each turn it is first that the active player decides weather a firefight between all units with muskets shall break loose. He then starts the firefight and the passive side goes second. Afterwards he decides which action to take as described above. So I was forced to bring that unit out of a possible firefight later in the game: move retrograde for 2 cards while facing the opponent was the only solution available. But the stuff was going to get nasty anyways:

The lines are closing in

So with these moves I was hindered from firing a single shot before the lines hit each other. Not a very good situation to be in. And "en avant" the french guard threw themselves into my first line of conscripts. Melee in Maurice is very straightforwards: each unit has a base-value determined by their skill and rolls one dice. The skill value and possible other modifications (I had two cards of "attack falters" on hand, reducing each french unit played upon for a -2) are added. Dice higher: win the combat, double the enemy: destroy him. If you attack and draw you loose as well. The winner of a fight looses one level of morale, the looser 2. If a unit reaches 5 morale/death markers (yellow plastic dots here) it is broken and removed.

Ouch!

But the French charge did not go as expected: While they were able to break the Grenadier Infantry Regiment No.6 during their charge, the Musketeer Regiment No.20 held the ground repelling the french charge - even though being only conscript Infantry in this game. But the french threw a 2 and thought it good to re-roll it due to their ability. It turned down to a 1 - what a pity. This short stop gave the Prussians the time needed to unload their steady musket fire upon the enemy. In the meantime the force of Laurent van Hussen moved into position on the Prussians right flank as well: 

The hours on the parade grounds drilling the lads with their muskets proved useful for the Prussians. Some minutes later the frech guard was shot, but the heroic 20th Musketeer Regiment as well as some other Prussians, including van Hussens body lay dead upon the battlefield, too. Under losses Prussia hold the ground and swept the french right flank.

The Prussians are closing the door on the french

If a unit is lost in Maurice, the impact it's death has on the overall morale is not clear. For each unit a dice is rolled resulting in a loss of either one, two or at worst three morale-points. After all, we were both down to two points. The Prussians had swept the french flank, but under heavy losses:

Heavy losses to be seen in the background

My Opponent now decided to bring the left side of his units into contact hoping to crush the rest of van Hussens force before the kings infantry from the right would eat him alive:

The French move in.

At this point of the battle we both have only 2 respectively 1 morale-point left. The next unit dead is going to decide the game for sure. After the french came that close, I decided that after the firefight there would be a charge. And again the Prussian musket drills were superior, the unit next to the wood-topped hill dealt 4 morale points, 3 of them on the unit to their front, while receiving only 1.

With "Hurray!" they charged

The last charge decided the battle - the damage done during the previous firefight was to heavy - and the last French unit did the most french thing possible and fled the battlefield. A great battle, close until the very end came to a not so clear result, given only two morale-points left on the Prussian side, too.